Clouds Cotton Candy Creations

Autumn Worten and her daughter, Delaney Reid, create custom cotton candy through their business, Clouds Cotton Candy Creations.

It’s a bit ironic that cotton candy was invented by a dentist.

Why Dr. William Morrison thought the treat made of pure sugar, which he called “fairy floss” in 1897, was a good idea isn’t known. One theory is that it was easier on the teeth than stickier confections.

It’s all in how you spin it.

It’s also a bit ironic that 14-year-old Delaney Reid eyed dentistry as a career consideration in her younger days and now sells cotton candy to fund extracurricular activities and college plans.

It’s all in how you spin it.

And Autumn Worten is working hard to make sure that Delaney, her daughter, sees the connection between spinning that sugar through their company, Clouds Cotton Candy Creations, and the dreams and goals it will fund.

Through the company, the pair creates custom cotton candy creations, both as a premade product and through a cart they take to events, where they spin the sugar live.

Worten, a “natural entrepreneur” who has started three businesses, was helping get the nonprofit Impact Tulsa off the ground when a co-worker shared a photo of a Ratatouille-inspired cotton candy creation.

That sent her and Delaney “down a rabbit hole.” They found that cotton candy businesses were popular in Asia and Australia with a foothold on the U.S. coasts, but no one was operating a custom cotton candy company in the middle of the country.

“So we thought we would start one,” Worten said. “We were looking for ways to pay for college, and I really liked the idea of being able to walk alongside her and show her how a business worked so she would always be able to go out and get that for herself.”

Learning the Craft

The beginnings weren’t exactly auspicious.

“We were actually really bad at spinning cotton candy, but I had already done all of the branding and everything, so we were just going to figure it out,” Worten said.

They worked with a trainer in Florida who did a lot of Disney- and Universal Studios-themed creations and had a “low spin time, and get the customer gone quickly” approach. They worked with a trainer from Michigan with a slower approach that focused on big, elaborate creations.

Studying both has given Worten and Delaney the flexibility to vary their services to fit the occasion. But “school” wasn’t easy.

“Humidity is something I’ve never thought more about than since we started this,” Worten said. “Cotton candy just dissolves as humidity goes up.”

The duo started with private parties in 2024, and the Carver Middle School prom that year was their first public event. Delaney, who graduated from Carver in May, will attend Booker T. Washington High School in the fall.

They worked mostly private parties through 2025 but also did Mayfest that year.

Building a Business

“We’re doing a lot of corporate events, weddings and such,” Worten said. “We’re doing a lot, which is exciting and awesome.”

Worten’s business acumen told her that most businesses don’t turn a profit in the first two years, but “I knew if we were going to do something (that would help Delaney with college expenses), we had to start early enough for it to accumulate some type of profit.”

And is it?

“We’re so close. We’re so very close,” she said, adding that in one quarter this year, the company surpassed its total sales from last year.

Worten said having a cotton candy business doesn’t take the fun out of the treat.

“We customize to each client, which really allows my creativity to shine,” she said. “It also never gets old seeing the faces of the people you’re handing the cotton candy to.

“I make everyone happy here.”

That includes adults.

“I was kind of surprised by that,” she said, adding that at the Carver prom, “the chaperones were the first in line.”

“It’s been really cool to watch how grown-ups almost turn into kids again around cotton candy,” she said.

Also cool is watching her teenager begin to embrace grown-up pursuits and start down a path toward owning the business someday.

Delaney doesn’t necessarily have that same natural head for business, but “she is learning,” Worten said, adding that she has contributed ideas about marketing to a younger audience and promoting the company on social media.

“It’s been really cool to watch how her brain works and see her figuring out ways to showcase it visually.”

For more information about Clouds Cotton Candy Creations, find them on Facebook and Instagram or email Autumn Worten at cloudscottoncandycreations@gmail.com

Sharon Bishop-Baldwin is a Tulsa-area freelance writer who also publishes the Sand Springs Line on Substack. She’s a cat mom who raises foster kittens for adoption and also a wildlife rehabilitator who raises raccoons and squirrels for release back to the wild.